Suction cleaner structure



R. DESCARRIES 3,031,031

SUCTION CLEANER STRUCTURE A ril 24, 1962 Filed April 1. 1958 INVENTOR Ikflu/ 01 5M} fi ATTORNEY tinned rates 3,h3l,h31 Fatented Apr. 24, 1962 hire 3,031,031 SUCTION CLEANER STRUCTURE Raymond Descarries, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Aktieholaget Electrolux, Stockholm, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Filed Apr. 1, 1958, Ser. No. 725,733 2 (Zlaims. (Cl. 55-413) My invention relates to suction cleaners.

In order to avoid the blowing of dust from a floor by the force of the air discharged from a suction cleaner outlet, it is usually the practice to direct the discharged air upward at an acute angle to the horizontal. In tanktype suction cleaners having an elongated casing provided with an end cover, this is often accomplished by providing an upwardly directed outlet in the end cover. This may also be accomplished by providing the end cover with a tubular member which extends into the interior of the cleaner from the outlet and is inclined upwardly toward the outlet,

It is sometimes necessary to provide a path of flow for air between the inlet and outlet ends of a cleaner in which a substantially horizontal tube adjacent to the outlet forms a part of the air flow path. This is especially true in a tank-type suction cleaner having a rear end cover in which a cord reel is rotatably mounted upon a tube which extends into the end cover from the outlet therein. The free end of an electrical cord adapted to be wound and unwound on and from the reel is arranged to pass through an opening in the side wall of the end cover. In order to facilitate the fabrication and operation of a cord reel of this type, it is desirable to mount the cord reel for rotation on a horizontally disposed tubular part. When the horizontally extending tubular part is provided in the end cover of a tank-type suction cleaner, there is a tendency for dust to be blown from the floor by the force of the air discharged from the cleaner outlet.

The object of my invention is to provide an improvement for deflecting upwardly at an acute angle to the horizontal the air discharged from the outlet of a suction cleaner having a tubular part which extends into the in terior of the cleaner from the outlet and is substantially horizontal during normal operation of the cleaner.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improvement for deflecting upwardly at an actute angle to the horizontal the air discharged from a tank-type cleaner whose outlet is provided in an end cover within which a cord reel is rotatably mounted on a normally substantially horizontal tubular part which extends into the end cover from the outlet and forms a part of the air flow path.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty which charatcerize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a suction cleaner embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the cleaner illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken at line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG, 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view of parts shown in FIG. 3 to illustrate details more clearly;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are vertical elevational views taken at lines 55 and 6-6 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken at line 7-7 of FIG. 3.

Referring to the drawing, I have shown my invention embodied in a horizontal tank-type suction cleaner comprising a casing 10, a front end cover 11 and a rear end cover 12. The casing 10 is provided with a handle 14 and wheels 15 and 16 to facilitate movement thereof on a supporting surface, the wheels 16 being at opposing sides of the casing and the single caster wheel 15 at the front end of the casing being disposed between the side walls of the cleaner.

The front end cover 11 is formed with an inlet 17 to which a suction hose (not shown) is adapted to be removably connected. Suitable cleaning tools may be connected to a wand which in turn is connected to the outer free end of the suction hose and through which air flows into the front end of the casing by a suitable motor-fan unit 13 disposed therein. The motor-fan unit 18 is connected in an electrical circuit having a switch (not shown) provided with a manually operable control member 19 at the top of the casing 14 Dirt entrained in air drawn into the inlet 17 is separated from air when it passes through a dust collecting member 20, and air from which dirt has been removed is discharged from the casing 10 through an opening 21 in the rear end cover 12. v

The front end cover 11 is removably secured to the casing 10 in any suitable manner (not shown). The rear end cover 12 is provided with a pair of arms 22 at the bottom thereof which are pivoted at 23 to brackets 24 at the bottom of the casing 11 upon which the rear wheels 15 may be journaled, The rear end cover 12, which is hinged at 23 and movable from and toward its closed position in FIG. 3, is provided with a latch 25 for releasably latching the coverat the rear end of the casing 10.

The rear end cover 12 is provided with an axially disposed tubular part or hollow sleeve 26 which projects forward from the discharge opening 21 toward the open end of the cover. A closure plate 27 for the rear end cover 12, having a central opening 28 therein, nests within the open end of the end cover and is secured thereto in any suitable manner (not shown). The closure plate 27, which may be formed of an insulating material like plastic, for example, cooperates with the forward end of the tube 26 for flowing therein air passing from the casing 10. A filter element 29 may be positioned in the space 30 formed between an apertured transverse wall 31 provided at the rear end of casing .10 and the closure plate 27, the latter having radially disposed ribs 32 for holding the filter element against the apertured wall 30.

The outlet 21 of the casing 10 is formed in the closed end of the open-ended end cover 12, such closed end defining an exterior wall of the suction cleaner. The hollow sleeve or member 26 extends into the casing 1t from the closed end of the end cover 12 and defines a part of the air flow path. The hollow member is formed with an air admission opening 28 and an outlet which coincides with the outlet 21 of the casing ltl. The hollow member 26 is substantially horizontal when the suction cleaner is normally positioned on a supporting surface with its air admission opening 28 removed from the exterior wall or end cover 12 and with the common outlet 21 for both the hollow member 26 and the casing 10 being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the hollow member 26.

Referring to FIG. 1, an opening 33 is formed in a side Wall of the rear end cover 12 through which is adapted to pass an electrical cord 34 at the outer free end of which is provided a conventional connecting plug 35 which arrests inward movement of the cord through the opening. The cord 34 is arranged to be wound on a reel 36 rotatably mounted on the tube 26. The electrical cord includes a pair of conductors which, at the inner end of the cord, are connected at 37 to a pair of slip rings 38 provided in circular grooves in a side wall of the reel which is formed of suitable insulating material.

The top part of the closure plate 27 is provided with a suitable terminal block (not shown) which engages contact fingers (not shown) at the rear end of the casing when the rear end cover 12 is closed. To the terminal block are connected vertically disposed leaf springs 39 having contact buttons at their lower ends which engage theslip rings 38, thus providing a source of electrical supply for the motor-fan unit 18 when the rear end cover 12 is closed and the connecting plug 33 is connected to a suitable electrical outlet.

The electrical cord 34, when released, is wound on the reel with the aid of a spring 46 of spiral form which may be eccentrically disposed with respect to the reel. A pawl and ratchet mechanism, including pawls 41 and cooperating notched portions (not shown) formed at the outer surface of the tube 26, is provided to render the spring 40 ineflective to impart rotating movement to the reel 36 when substantially all or any part of the cord 34 is unwound from the reel and the spring 40 is under tension. Cord-winding structure of the type just described is disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 725; 732, filed April 1, 1958, to which reference may be had, if desired.

In accordance with my invention, vanes or baflles 42 and 43 are provided in the air outlet tube 26 so that, when the suction cleaner is in a horizontal position, as illustrated in FIG. 1, air is discharged upwardly from the outlet 21 to substantially prevent blowing of dust from the floor adjacent to air outlet 21.

The vanes 42 and 43 are of triangular shape in section and include inwardly sloping wall surfaces 42a and 43a, respectively, which may be referred to as front vane surfaces which face the direction of air fiow and are contacted by air flowing through the tube toward the outlet 21. The rear surfaces 42b and 43b are perpendicular to and at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the tube 26.

When viewed from the ends of the tube 26 in FIGS. and 6, it will be seen that the vanes 42 and 43 in elevation are of crescent shape. The front faces of the crescent-shaped vanes are of convex form and define surfaces which, from the center regions of the vanes toward the tops of the vanes, extend axially toward the outlet 21, as well as transversely of the tube 26, as shown in FIG. 7. As shown most clearly in FIG. 5, the lower crescent-shaped vane 43 extends across the bottom part of the tube 26 between spaced points 44 which are at a level slightly below the axis of the tube 26, which is indicated by the dotted line 45 in FIG. 4. The upper vane 42 is positioned in the tube in the same way as the lower vane 43 with the tips at the opposing ends thereof at points 46 which are slightly above the axis of the tube.

It will now be seen that the vanes 42 and 43 extend radially inward from the inner wall surface of the hollow member 26 toward the axis indicated at 45 in FIG. 4, the inner edges of the vanes terminating at regions which fall short of the axis. Hence, the vanes 42 and 43 are of such size and shape that a partially obstructed path of flow for air is provided lengthwise of the hollow member 26. The vanes 42 and 43 are disposed axially of the hollow member 26 along a longitudinally extending first zone which is spaced from the air admission opening 28 and outlet 21 thereof. Further, the longitudinally extending first zone at which the vanes 42 and 43 are disposed and the zones of the hollow member 26 extending from the immediate vicinity of the air deflecting structure toward the air admission opening 28 and the outlet 21 are of tubular form and having their axes coinciding with one another.

With the vanes 42 and 43 of the shape described and illustrated, the two vanes, when viewed from the ends of the tube, appear to define an opening in the tube passageway which is of elliptical shape. However, at no part of the air flow path in the tube 26 is the cross-sectional area of the flow path reduced by more than the crosssectional area of the rear face 42b or 43b of a single vane, this being so because the vanes 42 and 43 are axially spaced from one another.

The vanes primarily serve as baffles for the purpose of changing the direction of air flow without restricting the air velocity, the pressure drop of air flowing across the vanes 42 and 43 being extremely small and substantially negligible for all practical purposes. In other words, the vanes 42 and 43 eifectively change the direction of air flow in the tube 26 and at the same time provide an opening of maximum size for flow of air therethrough.

In the preferred embodiment being described, the front faces 42a and 43a of the vanes 42 and 43, respectively, form an acute angle of about 45 with the longitudinal axis of the tube 26. Hence, at all regions of the crescent-shaped vanes, between the outer tips thereof, the angle at the front faces of the vanes with respect to the tube axis is 45 with the greatest axial extent of the front faces being at the extreme highest and lowest regions of the tube 26. By using vanes 42 and 43 of the kind shown and described in a horizontal tank-type suction cleaner of the kind illustrated, blowing of dust on a floor or floor covering being cleaned with the cleaner is essentially avoided by virtue of the fact that air is discharged upwardly at the outlet 21 at an acute angle of at least 20 to the horizontal.

A suction cleaner accessory is often detachably connected to the blowing outlet end of a cleaner. The accessory may be a hose, or a spraying device which is connected to one end of the hose, the opposite end of which is connected to the cleaner outlet. Such accessories are usually provided with fittings, like the fitting 47 indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 4, so that they may be detachably connected to the outlet 21. The fitting 47 may be a hollow member formed of metal or plastic which conforms to the shape of the inner wall surface of the tube 26 and is provided with spring-pressed rollers 48 which are resiliently held in a circular groove 49 at the outlet 21. As shown in FIG. 4, the vanes 42 and 43, which are positioned intermediate the ends of the tube 26, are axially removed from the outlet 21 a distance sufiicient to detachably connect the fitting 47 to the outlet, the inner end of the sleeve portion of the fitting being spaced from the bottom vane 43.

Although I do not wish to be limited thereto, it is my belief that air flowing in the bottom part of the tube 26 impinges the front face 43a of the bottom vane 43 and is directed upwardly across the entire width of the tube between the points 44 of the bottom vane. The air flowing in the top part of the tube in a similar way impinges the front face 42a of the top vane 42 and, since the top vane is ahead of the bottom vane with respect to the direction of air flow, air striking the sloping wall of the top vane apparently is initially deflected toward the sloping front surface of the bottom vane and substantially deflected with air flowing in the bottom part of the tube toward the upper part of the outlet 21.

In this way, a blanket of air moving at a relatively high rate of speed is directed upwardly at an acute angle toward the outlet 21 past the entire top edge of the bottom vane, between the points 44 thereof, in FIGS. 5 and 6. Air deflected downwardly from the bottom edge of the top vane, between the spaced points 46 thereof in FIGS. 5 and 6, which does not have sufficient momentum to impinge the front face 43a of the bottom vane most likely is influenced by the moving blanket of air in the bottom part of the tube which is inclined upwardly toward the outlet 21 from the bottom vane and mixes with such air. In any case, even though the theory just advanced may not be exactly correct, tests of the preferred embodiment illustrated and described above have proven beyond satisfaction that air discharged with force from the outlet 21 is directed upwardly at an acute angle of about so that objectionable blowing of dust from the floor adjacent to the rear end of the cleaner is avoided for all practical purposes.

In view of the foregoing, it will now be understood that an improved arrangement has been provided for directing upwardly at an acute angle to the horizontal air which is discharged from the outlet end 21 of a horizontal tube 26 which forms a part of the path of flow of air between the inlet 17 and outlet 21 and also serves as a hollow shaft upon which the cord reel 36 is journaled. This facilitates the fabrication of a cord reel of the type illustrated and described above, it being desirable for the hollow shaft upon which the reel is rotatably mounted to be substantially parallel tothe longitudinal axis of the cleaner, especially in tank-type suction cleaners having elongated casings which are positioned horizontally during normal operation. This arrangement also facilitates the winding of electrical cord onto and from the reel when the reel is mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis with the side walls of the reel essentially upright.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, such variations and modifica tions are contemplated as fall Within the true spirit and scope of the invention, as pointed out in the following claims.

=1 claim:

1. In a suction cleaner which includes a casing defining a path of flow for air and having an inlet and outlet for air and air moving means and dirt collecting means therebetween, the outlet being formed in an exterior wall of the casing, a hollow member extending into the casing from the wall and defining a part of the air flow path, said hollow member having an air admission opening and an outlet which coincides with the outlet of the casing, said hollow member being substantially horizontal when the cleaner is normally positioned on a supporting surface with its air admission opening removed from the exterior wall and with the common outlet for both said hollow member and the casing being substantially perperdicular to the longitudinal axis of said hollow member, structure comprising stationary vane means in said hollow member for deflecting upward air discharged to the outlet, said vane means being disposed axially of said hollow member along a longitudinally extending first zone thereof which is spaced from the air admission opening and outlet thereof, said vane means including a plurality of vanes which are distributed axially of said hollow member and are spaced from one another at the first zone of said member, said vanes being of crescent shape and angularly offset from one another when viewed axially of said hollow member from the outlet of the casing, said vanes being essentially semi-circular and forming transverse batfies within said tube which gradually taper toward their ends and at their outer ends merge into the inner wall surface of said first zone of said hollow member at which said vanes are disposed, the front faces of said vanes being convex.

2. In a suction cleaner which includes a casing defining a path of flow for air and having an inlet and outlet for air and air moving means and dirt collecting means therebetween, the outlet being formed in an exterior wall of the casing, a stationary hollow member of cylindrical form extending into the casing from the wall and defining a part of the air flow path, said hollow member having an air admission opening and an outlet which coinsides with the outlet of the casing, said hollow member being substantially horizontal when the cleaner is normally positioned on a supporting surface with its air admission opening axially removed from the exterior wall and with the common outlet for both said hollow member and the casing being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said hollow member, structure comprising stationary vane means in said hollow member for deflecting upward air discharged at the outlet, said vane means being disposed lengthwise of said hollow member along a longitudinally extending first zone there of which is of substantially constant internal diameter and axially removed from the air admission opening and outlet thereof, said hollow member including the first zone thereof having a substantially horizontal axis when the cleaner is normally positioned on a supporting surface, said vane means including a pair of substantially semi-circular vanes distributed longitudinally of said hollow member and spaced from one another at the first zone of said hollow member, each of said vanes extending radially inward from the inner surface of said hollow member toward the axis of said first zone thereof and having its inner edge terminating at a region short of said last-mentioned axis, said vanes being angularly offset from one another when viewed axially of said hollow member from the outlet of the casing, said vanes in their lengthwise directions being disposed in different planes transverse to the axis of the first zone of said hollow member and extending about the inner surface of the hollow member through angles of less than about the axis of said hollow member, said hollow member forming a collar which encircles said vanes and extends axially in opposite directions from each of said vanes, said pair of substantially semi-circular vanes being disposed respectively at the top and bottom halves of said first zones of said hollow member, and said vane at the top half of said hollow member being further removed axially from the outlet of the casing than said vane at the bottom half of said member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,721,459 McClatchie July 16, 1929 1,891,256 Bilde Dec. 20, 1932 2,007,631 Bieth July 9, 1935 2,324,711 Lofgren July 20, 1943 2,900,139 Hensley Aug. 18, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 622,073 Germany Dec. 12, 1938 

